cooking – Page 11

Akki Rotti Payasa /Rice flat bread kheer:

December 6, 2017

Happiness is when one of your readers messages you regarding this recipe, which he used to relish in his childhood and attempted a couple of times without any success. He wanted to know the exact recipe for the same, with proper measurements. When he explained about this payasam, I was clueless and thought it must be his grand mom’s own creation to fulfil the needs of her big family by making it easier. He patiently explained the process about how his grand mom used to prepare it and What amazed me was, as a small child, he has seen and observed how his grand mom does etc. After listening to his explanation, it was like a dream to me. I couldn’t resist, and wanted to try it out As soon as possible. The next day was my wedding anniversary and I grabbed the opportunity and started my experiment. It indeed was a treat and I was super duper happy with the result. Here is the recipe and I am dedicating it to that great soul from whom this recipe came to light and my reader who has shared his childhood nostalgic memories with me by explaining it patiently.

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Now we will see how I proceeded with the recipe-

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 1 small cup

Salt

Jaggery – 4 small cubes

One fresh coconut – to extract milk

Cardamom powder – 1 tea spoon.

Banana leaves – 2 pieces

Ghee – 1 tea spoon

Cashew pieces – 2 table spoons

Method:

-Wash and soak Dosa rice for 2 hours.

-Grind the rice into smooth paste with sufficient water (use soaked water itself) and salt.

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-Batter should be of spreadable consistency (little thinner than regular Dosa batter)

-Next is a coconut milk extraction:

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-Take fresh gratings, put one cup of water and grind into smooth paste and extract milk through sieve. This milk is a thick milk and is used at the end. Hence, it should be kept aside separately.

-Now once again take roughage of the coconut, put one more cup of water and grind, sieve the paste and it is our second extraction of milk.

-Repeat the process and take out a third extraction as well and if you are using the roughage of the coconut in any other purpose, you can store it in a freezer for future use.

– Take one wide thick bottomed vessel, Pour diluted, very thin milk (3 rd. extraction) and jaggery. Boil nicely.

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-Now pour second extraction of milk (thin milk) and boil further.

-Now start preparing Rotti, take one clean banana leaf, spread a ladle of rice batter and spread as thin as possible and flip this leaf over boiling jaggery solution.

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-Within 2 minutes, it will be ready to remove. Now start pulling your banana leaf by peeling it slowly.

-After peeling, if at all some cooked Rotti part remains, take one flat ladle and remove and put it in the boiling jaggery solution.

-Repeat the procedure, until batter finishes. I did it 4 times.

-Now boil this further for 3 to 4 minutes and mix it in-between by using very light hand.

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-It is the time to use thick first extract of the coconut milk.

-When it starts boiling, remove from the flame. Add cardamom powder and ghee fried cashews and serve hot.

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Note:

We liked this dessert as a Hot option.
When it cools down, at room temperature it tastes good.
Under refrigeration, if Rotti pieces becomes slightly hard, one can relish after re heating.

Red Amaranth and Beet Pulav:

December 3, 2017

Red amaranth is very beautiful and a natural source of energy, rich in iron and a whole lot of micro nutrients and fibre. It is very high in calcium and very good for all ages, from infants to adults.

On the other hand, beets are also packed with anti-oxidants, Folic acid and Iron. Which is considered as a super food to fight anaemia.

When my home grown red amaranth is harvested, this rice dish is what we love to eat, by adding Beetroot chunks to enhance the nutritional value. One can enjoy this one pot super tasty dish with any form of yogurt based side dish or even with plain yogurt and pickle. One can carry this in a tiffin box as well. It is a very good idea to feed greens to those who don’t like them, without they even noticing 😉

This time, when I harvested red amaranth, I thought of using fresh ground masala and it really tasted divine, oozing with flavours.

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Ingredients:

Basmati Rice – 3 cups

Beet root – 1 big

Red Amaranth – 1 Small bunch

Onions – 2 (sliced)

Ghee/oil– 3 table spoons+1 tea spoon

Cumin -1 tea spoon

Bay leaves – 2 (small)

Ginger garlic paste – 1 table spoon

Milk – 1 cup

Curd -1 cup

Brown Bread – 3 slices

For Fresh masala:

Coriander – 1 tea spoon

Cumin – ½ tea spoon

Cardamom -2

Cloves- 2

Cinnamon – 1”

Black pepper – 8

Nutmeg – 1 pinch

Dried Red chillies – 2

Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tsp

Method:

-Wash rice and soak for 15 minutes.

-Wash Beetroot, chop into bite size pieces.

– Wash Amaranth greens, chop.

-Dry roast fenugreek seeds. When it is slightly brown, add all the other ingredients under masala and fry.

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-Make a powder and keep it.

-Now take one pressure cooker. Add ghee or oil, fry cumin and bay leaves.

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-Add sliced onion, fry until it is brown.

-Add ginger garlic paste, fry for 2 minutes.

-Add beetroot, chopped greens, fry until green wilts.

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-Next add fresh ground masala powder, drained rice, salt.

-Mix everything and add milk, curd , 4 cups of water and 1 tea spoon of ghee,close the lid.

-After one whistle, keep it in a simmer for one/two minutes and switch off the gas.

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-Now make small square size pieces of brown bread and deep fry and drain out excess oil.

-When pressure releases, add bread croutons and lightly mix everything.

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– serve with any raita or plain curd and pickle.

Soppavare/Winged beans stir-fry:

December 1, 2017

Soppavare name itself is very much nostalgic. We had a widespread vine in our front yard and we used to relish a whole lot of Mangalorean traditional recipes in our childhood days.

Winged bean is a nutritionally very rich, tropical vine, which needs warm weather, but in the winter season. Almost all parts of the plant are edible, and vine produces unique shaped bean with four-winged edges.

It is rich in vitamins, minerals and many nutrients. When it is cooked, bean has nutty flavour and is consumed in many forms from salad to stir fries or in a form of curry.

My family relishes on this simple stir-fried salad with this simple seasoning.

Ingredients:

Winged beans – 10 -15

Olive oil – 2 tsp

Garlic salt – 1 tsp

Chilli flakes – ½ – 1 tsp

Method:

Wash and slice the beans.
Heat one non-stick tawa add olive oil, add chopped beans, garlic salt and red chilli flakes.
Stir fry for a while and serve as it is or with curd rice or as you wish.

Sambrani gadde Palya /Chinese potato stir fry:

November 27, 2017

Chinese potato is commonly known as koorka or kooka. These are tiny tubers, with deep brown skin, unlike potato. Otherwise, it looks like baby potatoes. It is a less known, neglected vegetable and tastes good with a very little seasoning or additives. It is high in nutritional value and carbohydrate.

Ingredients:

Chinese potato – ½ kg

Salt

Coconut oil – 2 teaspoons

Mustard seeds -1 teaspoon

Urad dal – 1 teaspoon

Hing – ¼ tsp

Dried Red chillies – 2

Curry leaves – 2 strings

Onion – 1/2 ( chopped)

Tamarind – 1/2 tsp (soak it in a tbl sp of water)

Turmeric – ½ teaspoon

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Jaggery – ½ teaspoon

Grated coconut – 2 tablespoons

Method:

-Soak Chinese potato for 20 minutes, it will help in cleaning as well as while peeling the outer skin.

-After washing, peel outer skin by scraping it and keep immerse in water.

-Chop like a match stick and immerse it in water to avoid blackening.

-Now take a thick vessel, add little water, turmeric, salt, jaggery and boil. Add drained kooka pieces and cook in low heat, until it is firm and soft.

-Now, proceed with the seasoning. Take one Kadai, heat 1 a spoon of coconut oil, splutter mustard, add urad dal, hing, broken red chillies, onion and fry for 2 min.

-Add cooked kooka, red chilli powder, little tamarind water, freshly grated coconut and fry for a while.

-Lastly, add 1 tsp of raw coconut oil, curry leaves, mix everything, close the lid and keep this for 2 to 5 min on a low flame.

-Flavour of Raw coconut oil and curry leaves would give a nice aroma to this side dish. Enjoy hot rice and dhal topped with ghee.

Stuffed Capsicum (South Indian style)

November 12, 2017

Stuffed capsicum is usually done with potato, paneer, cheese or moong dal. In this recipe I have used coconut and onion which is mixed with south Indian style masala powder for the filling. It can be relished with plain roti or rice as a side dish. It is very tasty, and we relish it every now and then, whenever I get to catch hold of tiny capsicums. This recipe I learnt almost a decade ago by Radha athe. She is a treasure house of North canara traditional recipes and I have learnt so many things from her.

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Ingredient:

Capsicum – ½ kg (small sized)

Onion – 2 to 3

Coconut – 1 cup

Salt – as needed

Tamarind powder – ½ tsp

Oil – 2 table spoons

For masala powder:

Chana dal – 2 table spoons

Urad dal – 1 tea spoon

Cumin – 1 tea spoon

Hing – small pea size

Dried red chillies – 6 to 8

White sesame seed (til) – 1 tea spoon

Mustard – ½ tea spoon

Turmeric – ½ tea spoon

Method:

-For masala, dry roast Chana dal, urad dal, cumin, white sesame and mustard and keep it aside.

-Next take couple of drops of oil and fry red chillies and hing.

-Cool everything and make powder by using mixer jar.

-Now take one bowl, add chopped onion, grated coconut, salt, tamarind powder and required amount of masala powder (don’t pour at once, use as required).

-Here salt and masala should be on a slightly higher side, because while cooking, even capsicum will absorb the masala and salt.

-Next wash small sized capsicum, make a round mark near the stalk region and cut open that top part. If possible, keep it intact.

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-Remove inner seed part and clean inside.

-Fill ready coconut and onion masala and close it with upper stalk part and make it firm.

-Now take one wide nonstick pan, pour oil and heat.

-Place all the masala filled capsicum and sprinkle little water and close the lid.

-Cook in a simmer, check in between and turn the sides.

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-All the sides should be uniformly cooked and outer skin should have charred effect.

-When it is done, switch off and serve hot with rice or plain phulka’s.

Onion Garlic Kulambu / Poondu – Vengaya Kulambu:

November 8, 2017

As I said in earlier post of Tamilnadu style Idli, Kulambu is a very good side dish for idli, if you like sweet and sour kind of taste. We all enjoyed this flavourful curry with idli and I had promised to post this recipe in my earlier post. Basically, it is a simple curry with tamarind base, which has shallots and garlic as the main veggies in it. Once again, all thanks to Senguttuvan Subburathina and his wife, Jayanthi Senguttuvan for this amazing recipe. I have made some changes to suit our requirement.

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Ingredient:

Peeled garlic – 20

Shallots /sambar onions – 20

Tamarind – small lemon size.

Salt

Jaggery – as needed.

Red chilli powder – 1 tea spoon

Sambar powder – 1 tea spoon

Hing – pea size

Turmeric – ½ tea spoon

Coconut – ¼ cup

Rice flour – 1 tea spoon

Seasoning: Gingelly oil – 1 tea spoon, refined oil – 1 tea spoon, fenugreek seeds – ½ tea spoon, mustard – 1 tea spoon, curry leaves – 1 spring.

Method:

-Remove outer skin of shallots and garlic. If shallots are big, make couple of pieces.

-Soak tamarind in one cup of water.

-Take a vessel, do seasoning by pouring both the oils, when it is hot, add fenugreek, when it is light brown, add mustard. When it crackles, add curry leaves.

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-Add garlic and shallots and fry for a while. Meanwhile add turmeric, hing and toss for a while.

-Add tamarind water, red chilli powder, sambar powder, salt, jaggery and cook onions and garlic.

-Grind coconut and rice flour into smooth paste and add the paste to cooked onion.

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-Adjust the consistency by adding some water, check the seasoning like salt, sweet and hot. If needed add and adjust the taste.

– Boil this for 5 minutes, so that rice flour and coconut paste also cooks and becomes little thick.

-When it is ready, enjoy with hot idlies.

Note:

-Original recipe is a little hot, hence I reduced the quantity of chilli and sambar powder.

-Usage of gingelly oil gives the authentic taste. If you are not accustomed to its taste, mix half of any vegetable oil.

-Usage of coconut paste is optional.

-We like little thick texture Kolumbu, so I added rice flour as well. It gives a little creamy texture and is also tasty.

Tamilnadu Style Idli and Dosa Batter:

November 5, 2017

It is a Two in one bonanza—Yes!!!!

I always wondered how to get a pillowy soft kind of idli which is a speciality of Tamilnadu. In our coastal side, idli turns out soft but has a little grainy texture, not spongy which we get in all Tamilian eating joints. During one such discussion in our Foodie group, we asked to provide Tamilian style idli recipe with our ever energetic, multitalented uncle Senguttuvan. I really was not expecting this kind of response after one week. He and his wife literally took all the trouble and wrote step by step procedures with pictures, some tricks and notes. Added to that, there were a couple of video’s too. I was really overwhelmed and wanted to give its due credit by publishing this recipe in my blog after preparing it myself at home and we all loved it.

I tried his Idli recipe and paired it with another hit recipe of his Onion Garlic Kolumbu. It was a pair made in heaven kind of breakfast. I will post the Kolumbu recipe next and once again all thanks to Senguttuvan Subburathina and his wife Jayanthi Senguttuvan for this amazing recipe. Now, over to his words as it is and my pictures-

Here we go!

The selection of Rice is important. Boiled Rice (Idly rice) with patches of white will help in better softness of Idly.

We use whole white Urad Dal. Not broken one. (why? This also help soft Idly they say. I am not sure)

Fenugreek (Methi /Menthya Seeds)

Salt to taste.

Water as required.

Only the above ingredients go into making of this Idly / Dosa batter.

Wash the Rice 2-3 times with water and soak in clear water for 2hrs.
Simultaneously, wash Urad Dal and Menthya seeds and soak in water.

THE RATIO IS – RICE 4:1 URAD DAL. One TeaSpoon of Menthya.

Use of wet grinder is recommended. Heat generated during use of Mixie / blender spoils the Batter making. Though ice water usage will minimize the effect in mixie.

First, Grind the Urad Dal first, using the same water in which it was soaked. Grind for 25 mins adding water little by little so that a soft thick fluffy batter consistency is reached.

Transfer to a vessel and start grinding the Rice adding water little by little as you grind. About half an hour of grinding will give a little coarseness in batter. This thick batter is to be added to the Urad/ Fenugreek mixed batter.

Add required ROCKSALT (to taste) and mix well with hands. This is important. The good bacteria in hands help fermentation of batter. Take care to choose a vessel that will allow 25% raise in the height of batter after fermentation.

Normally, the batter is prepared by noon around 2pm. By night, around 8-9 pm, the batter is well fermented, for Chennai weather. In cold climate, it is recommended to switch the light on in OTG and keep it in, so that the warm light helps in faster fermentation.

At 9pm, when you find the batter well fermented, mix it well with ladle and close and keep refrigerated.

As and when required, take the small quantity of batter in a separate vessel and use that portion leaving the main portion of batter under constant refrigeration, so that it does not get further fermented.

The batter is ready for Idly / Dosa preparation the next day morning. Mix well and use for fresh fluffy Idly.

Use a drop of oil in each pit of Idly plate and spread oil so that Idly comes out smooth. We cook Idly in pressure cooker without placing the weight. It just takes 7 minutes to get fluffy Idlies cooked.

After removing the Idly plates from cooker allow a minute or two to cool down and remove the Idly for easy removal.

For Dosa preparation:

Remove small quantity of this batter to another vessel and add little water mix well and use. A thick Dosa or thin roast Dosa can be prepared with same batter.

Trust the above details help.

Note from Me:

-In Bangalore weather it takes more time to ferment. It took me almost 16 hours.

-I personally feel very lazy to remove urad dal after grinding. So, I add soaked rice and continue grinding as it is. It also works just fine.

Sweet Corn and Cheese Paratha/Parata:

November 4, 2017

Week days are really challenging for moms of school going kids. We must see the nutritional factor as well as the taste. This stuffing is such, it is tasty, nutritious and loved by any kids from tiny tots to teenagers. It has sweet corn, cabbage and cheese.

These three are very tasty and nutritious as well. Sweet corn contains a lot of vitamin B12, Iron, Folic acid and soluble fibre etc.

Cabbage also is rich in vitamins; minerals and it is quite filling as well. In India, the only concern is that it has high pesticide content. So, wash with salt or vinegar solution a couple of times, drain and use.

Now it is cheese. Who doesn’t love cheese? Like all dairy products cheese also provides required calcium to our body and kids need it even more. Usage in limited quantity is always good 😊

Ingredients:

For Chapati dough:

Whole wheat flour- 2 cups

Salt- ½ tsp

Water – as required

Oil – 1 tsp

For stuffing:

Cabbage – 3 table spoons

Sweet Corn – 3 table spoons

Capsicum – ½

Onion – 1 (small)

Oregano or Any pizza seasoning – ½ to 1 tsp

Chopped Garlic – 3 flakes

Red chilli flakes – ½ to 1 tsp

Salt

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Grated cheese – 2 table spoons.

Method:

-Make soft pliable chapati dough by mixing all the above ingredients under chapati. Keep aside.

-Boil corn and drain water.

-Chop garlic, onion, capsicum, cabbage.

-Churn or crush cooked corn, cabbage and capsicum in food processer or veggie chopper.

-Take one wok, add oil, chopped garlic, onion, turmeric and fry for a while.

-Next add crushed veggies, put salt and seasoning. Fry for 2 minutes or until it wilts.

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-Cool and add grated cheese and mix nicely and make small balls.

-Now take lemon sized chapati dough in hand, spread as a small disc by using fingers.

-Keep this in your left palm, in a cup shape, put filling (smaller in size) and cover it.

-Now take extra flour for dusting and spread or roll this ball with light pressure by using a roller.

-Cook both the sides by using either oil, ghee or butter.

-Enjoy this either with ketchup or pickle.

Note:

-Instead of chopped garlic and salt, one can use garlic salt as well.

Seasoned Neer Dosa / Thellavu Oggarane:

November 2, 2017

Neer Dosa batter usually finished off as a fresh batter. We traditionally don’t keep Neer Dosa batter to ferment. We finish off all the batter by preparing dosas and keep. My family likes the seasoned sweet version of this at evenings as after school or office snack. That is the reason why I make it a point to soak more rice and prepare more dosas in the morning and keep them. Now we will see how I make this-

Ingredients;

Left over dosas – 8

Coconut oil – 1 table spoon

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Urad dal – 1 tea spoon

Dried Red chilli -1

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Salt – ¼ tea spoon

Coconut – ½ cup (grated)

Jaggery – grated (as needed)

Method:

-Break Neer Dosa into pieces by using hand.

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-Prepare mixture of grated jaggery and coconut and keep aside.

-Heat one tawa, add oil, splutter mustard, fry urad dal, red chilli and add curry leaves.

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-Add pieces of Dosa, sprinkle salt and add coconut jaggery mixture.

-Heat until it all mixes and then switch off the gas and serve as a snack.

Spaghetti squash palya/stir-fry:

October 24, 2017

Spaghetti squash is oblong shaped spring vegetable. Like any other squash it has creamy yellow outer hard skin and inner core and seed part. It is rich in vitamins, rich in antioxidants and low in carbohydrate. Hence it is loved by weight watchers and one can enjoy this super magical veggie in many forms after baking it for a half an hour. After initial baking/cooking ,inner flesh tends to become thread like texture and which can be enjoyed in many ways as salads, as substitution for noodles etc.

I wanted to try this vegetable from so long. In my recent visit to USA, I asked my sister to bring this veggie when I was at her place. She did struggle a lot to find this vegetable in the Summer and finally managed to find one and handed it over to me. I knew it was extensively used as a substitute to noodles in salads, hence I wanted to incorporate it in our south Indian cooking and tried simple palya and it tasted great with rice and Rasam.

Ingredients:

Spaghetti squash – 1

Red chilli powder – 1 tea spoon

Salt

Turmeric – ½ tea spoon

Jaggery – 1 tea spoon

Grated fresh coconut – 2 table spoons

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 table spoon

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Urad dal – 1 tea spoon

Cumin – ½ tea spoon

Red chilli -1 (broken in to half)

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Method:

How to remove or prepare spaghetti, out of squash before making palya-

If you have not used spaghetti squash before, there are couple of things one should know. First you should cut this veggie into half lengthwise and carefully remove the seeds and attached fibre. Place these two pieces on a lined cookie sheet or any baking tray. Next spray some olive oil or any other vegetable oil and bake this in a pre-heated oven for 30-40 minutes at 180 ®C or until it is cooked and water oozes and accumulates at the centre hollow region.

Next, remove from the oven, cool a bit. Take one fork and scrape all over and see the magic. Yup!!! You will see lots of noodle like strands and collect all these and keep it ready for further cooking.

How to make Palya:

-Take one kadai/wok add oil and heat. Splutter mustard, add urad dal, cumin, red chilli.

-When urad dal becomes light brown, add curry leaves, collected spaghetti squash strands, salt, jaggery, red chilli powder and little water.

-Cook until veggie absorbs all the flavours and water dries up. Garnish with coconut gratings.

-Serve with rice or roti.